EQUIPMENT & GEAR

I receive a lot of inquiries from fellow guitarist about the equipment I use so someone suggested I add this description as a regular part of the site (good idea, I don't know why I didn't think of it) This is going to be fairly detailed so if you're not a guitar player I highly recommend you stop reading immediately cause it's going to get really boring.

For live gigs I usually play a 65' fender strat that's pretty much stock
except for Sperzel tuners, a Wilkinson direct replacement bridge and a Seymore
Duncan "Little Screamin' Demon" strat size direct replacement (meaning same
size, no routing necessary) humbucking pickup in the bridge position. This is
also wired so I can split it to single coil. I try to stick with one guitar
throughout the set so as to develop a kind of repore with that instrument as the
night goes on. I also bring a Hamer strat style Daytona that is set up exactly
the same except that it has a maple fret board and Seymore Duncan vintage
pickups in the neck and the middle positions. I like both of these guitars but the
fender has been with me a much longer time (22 years) so I'm usually more
comfortable starting out with it. If I break a string or something that's cool too
because the Hamer sometimes gives me a slightly different perspective that
can also be inspiring. The strings I use are D'addario . 009's with the G string
lowered from. 016 to. 015. I need to use light strings to keep my tendonitis
from flaring up(what a pain in the ass).

On tour I quite often have to rent amps so I request in order of
preference a Mesa-Boogie Dual Rectifier "Tremoverb" or a Fender "Hot Rod Deville" then
use whatever is available.

For effects I use a pro-co rat pedal, a boss tuner pedal, an "Echodrive" (which is an analog delay built with tube circuitry) a boss digital delay
pedal, and a Shure wireless unit . In the studio I use an older model (script
logo)MXR dynocomp compressor pedal most of the time (not on the fat hollow body
guitars)and occasionally a rat pedal but rarely record with effects other than
that.

I usually use a fender vibroking amp through a boogie 1-12 cabinet with an eminence 70 watt speaker but I have also used a boogie studio 22 and a peavey classic 50. Occasionally I've gone direct into the board with a sans-amp classic pedal.

For guitars I record with the 65' strat, sometimes the Hamer Daytona, a 1959 Gibson ES 345 with a stop tailpiece wired mono with the varitone disconnected, a 1959 Gibson ES 175 with just1 pickup (humbucking, neck position), a 1964 Gibson L-5, a 1964
Martin O-18, a Rimerez nylon string and a Takamine nylon string.

Now this is really going to get
long as I'm going to go song by song with what I used
but people ask this stuff. [top
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I used my
1995 Fender Vibro King Amp through a Boogie 1x12 Cabinet
with an Eminence 70 watt speaker on every track.[top
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"SOUL SESSIONS"
For every track I plugged into my
Fender Vibroking amp through the Mesa Boogie 1x12
cabinet with an Eminence 70 speaker. I had my Echodrive
pedal plugged in but not turned on. I find that just
going through the tube circuitry fattens up the sound
and adds some bottom end. Other than that I went
straight into the amp.

The Vibrolux, Groove Tubes Soul-o amp and Eastman acoustic guitar were on loan from Tommy at California Vintage. Thanks!

Well there you have it, more
info than you could ever want. Maybe someone will read
all of this, maybe they won't, but at least it gave me
something to do one rainy afternoon. [top
]

"GRAND CENTRAL"

GuitarsAll songs were recorded with my 1965 Fender
Stratocaster except:1)Hello Betty- 1959 Gibson 345
2)Aint no Woman Like the One I Got- 1998 Epiphone
Sheraton recorded Direct through a Brent Averill Mic
pre3)"Mojito" and "The Way I Feel Tonight" - 1964
Martin O18 Acoustic

AmpsA "Fuchs Overdrive
Supreme 50" through 1X 12" speaker in an open back,
Sampson "lightening 15" amp. ( I don't know the make
they use but it seems fairly lo-fi)
except:"Something" through a Mesa Boogie Studio 22
combined with an early 60's blackface Vibrolux
"Slinky" through a 1995 "Fender Vibroking" through
an Eminence 12" speaker

I used the
same guitars, amps and effects pedals that I’ve
described before with the addition of a 1969 Les Paul
Gold Top. It has a one piece body and a 3 piece neck.
The pick ups were changed from the original mini
humbuckers to full size and replaced with the first run
of Gibson reissue PAF’s . I don’t remember what they
were called at the time, but it was about 1990 when I
bought them. I’m amazed at how much they sound like the
originals. I have that guitar strung with D’Addario
9.5’s

I used the Fuchs 50 watt Overdrive Supreme
with 1 eminence 12 inch speaker in a Mesa Boogie cabinet
on everything. I’ll typically set the amp and
overdrive pedal so that when I turn the guitar all the
way up and dig it distorts, then clean up the sound by
turning down my guitar and playing with a lighter touch.
Although this may not be the most efficient technique
for changing sound it does make me feel more personally
involved with it so I find it more artistically
rewarding than just clicking a button.

4. EVERYBODY WANTS YOU- my Red, 1965 Fender Stratocaster. I think John porter may have added
some distortion via
a protools plug in. I thought I played it a bit cleaner than this but I liked the way the guitar sounded in the mix so I never questioned it. Billy played a Collings acoustic guitar

5. THE BLINK OF AN EYE- the Red, 1965 Fender Stratocaster with the Fulltone OCD pedal

9.GONE FISHIN’- The Les Paul Gold Top I talked about with the MXR Dynocomp

10. FISH FARE- my Red 1965 Fender Stratocaster

11. I’LL PLAY THE BLUES FOR YOU- my Red 1965 Fender Stratocaster with the Fulltone OCD pedal I also used the Start on the rhythm guitar overdub with a 60’s Vox wha wha pedal

Itunes bonus track
EASE-E -the Les Paul with the MXR Dynocomp. That’s Jeff Lorber playing rhythm guitar on this ( as well as all of the keyboards except the organ) I think he played and Ibanez George Benson model.